Last week’sStart the Weekend Right Link Series featured many articles that I bookmarked way back in 2011. This week, I am posting some links to some more recent articles. In fact, most of these articles are from the last month or two. I hope that you enjoy reading them!

As always, though, before we get to this week’s links I again want to strongly recommend signing up for a free Feedly account. I get absolutely no kickback for promoting Feedly, but I am so appreciative of their product being the best RSS reader on the internet and I encourage everyone to use it. If you are using another RSS aggregator, please consider following JerseySmarts.com at http://www.jerseysmarts.com/feed/. If you are already on Feedly, then you can follow us by clicking here. Thanks!

Hulk Hogan v. Gawker (Marc Randazza Legal Analysis), Danger & Play
One of the biggest stories in media right now is Hulk Hogan’s victory in court against Gawker Media. Gawker has several websites – none of which have a shred of journalistic integrity. These websites do all that they can to destroy and damage people just for the sake of clicks and pageviews. They epitomize everything that is wrong with what people think the media is today. Gawker should not be categorized as a media source – they are barely worth mentioning as a tabloid. This link will take you to a great, quick set of bullet points outlining how badly Hogan beat Gawker in court. In addition, there is a video of the author speaking with a free speech lawyer about the verdict.

Is Rice Healthy For Me? Does White vs Brown Rice Matter?, Nerd Fitness
While the end result of this very astute investigation is, “it depends,” I strongly encourage you to read this article if you are a rice eating person like me. For my part, I have always been one of those people who does not automatically default to the brown version of everything (e.g. selecting whole wheat over white versions of products). This article made me realize that given the frequency with which I eat rice, I really should be eating brown rice instead of white rice. There is a lot of great information in this piece and I think you will enjoy reading it.

When You Find Out a Coworker Makes More Money than You Do, Harvard Business Review
There are some realities that most people have to recognize, face, and accept. One of those realities is that if you work for someone else, then you are not the highest paid person in the company. Period. And while my short example accentuates the differences between bosses and employees, this article provides some strategies on how to approach a different situation. Namely, the situation that occurs when you find out that a coworker (someone who you might consider an equal or even a subordinate) is making more money that you at your company. I am a big believer in not worrying about what other people are making and, instead, focusing on achieving your own success. I am also a believer in working outside jobs and starting your own company (or companies, if you have the time and inclination) to augment your salary. Ideally, that outside work will eventually supersede your salary and allow you to break free from working for someone else.

Coleco Pulls Out Of Faltering Chameleon Console (RetroVGS) Project, Retro Collect
I have always been fascinated at the moving and changing of the video game industry. Watching the ebbs and flows of video game companies, their gambles, and their successes has not only been a fun observation for me, but it also helped me make a few bucks off of those companies when I was more actively involved in the stock market. One of the most intriguing observations that I have about the industry today is the influence that retro gaming is having on the current market. There are a lot of people who are actively seeking a way to reject the big gaming companies and return to a time of cartridge-based gaming. To that end, RetroVGS started a crowd-funding campaign to start such a system. That campaign ultimately failed, but then legacy video game company Coleco came in to take up the mantle of the project… until they pulled out of the entire thing earlier this month.

The Beginner’s Guide to Meditation and Why You Need It, Live Limitless
This is not a short article by any means, but it is packed with information that you might find interesting if you are seeking more knowledge about meditation. Learning more about meditation is a non-priority goal that I have for myself. Specifically, I have been looking for a way to marry the peace that I encounter from my religious beliefs with a full body relaxation technique.

Obesity Changes How People View World: Study, Newsmax
According to the research presented in this article, if you are overweight, then you see the world differently. No, the research does not suggest that you only feel different about the way the world views you, but that you literally see objects as farther away. Interesting stuff.

City’s 1st CO-OP Coming to Asbury Fresh Summer Market, Asbury Park Sun
And in some local news – it looks like there will be a co-op option at the Asbury Park Summer Market this year. Several years ago I joined a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm that was about 15 minutes from my home. The promise of the CSA farm was that if you purchased a share (or, in my case, half a share), then you would be able to go to the farm and pick a certain amount of produce each week. That particular CSA farm worked well during the first year that I was a member, but the next two years were abysmal. Since then, I have been looking for a similar, local option.

The Collapse of Oil IS the Economic Boom, Reason
Another very interesting article about how the pending economic boom that everyone is waiting for is actually here. How is it here, you ask? Well, the precipitous drop in oil prices is something that impacts nearly every American adult. Further, while there have been some layoffs because of the price dropping, there are a lot more people who are experiencing more money in their accounts because they are not paying as much for gas as they were just a few months ago.

How To Make Your Own Rain Barrel Watering System, The Good Human
If I owned the type of home that had a big backyard that I could plant a substantial garden in, I would definitely be into putting something like a rain barrel watering system together. There is no question that I would have several of these barrels in my yard specifically for watering my plants and my garden (which would be packed with tomatoes and basil). Unfortunately, I do not think it is feasible to have something like this on my current backyard patio. Oh well!

Shrinking the White Male—and His Culture, Minding the Campus
As I often mention in these and other posts, young white men are being intellectually attacked on college campuses on a daily basis. This very short article is in that vein, but at a different level of the college campus. In this article, the author looks at language that many of you have seen in job postings about your potential employer embracing diversity and not holding any characteristic against you during the hiring process. The author then applies that language to the reality of the individuals that make up the department to which the job posting refers. The result is interesting, but what really stuck with me was the near-aside that ends the article. That is, that college students are new 60% women and 40% male. Where is the outrage about that inequality?

There are a lot of reasons why I choose to write this blog. I write it to keep people in my life updated on what I’m thinking and what’s going on in my life, I write it to express an opinion, I write it to spread that information which I feel is relevant to the interests of my readers, etc. However, one of my main motivations for writing this blog is to help counter what I believe is a severe lack of true journalistic reporting that independently verifies its sources and removes slanted opinions from the final product.

In no way do I suggest that JerseySmarts.com is engaging in such reporting. In fact, I would agree that I provide my personal point of view in all, if not most, of the entries on this blog. In providing that point of view, though, I do try to counter any biases that I find in the topic, should such a counter be relevant.

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to announce a Citizen Journalism Conference at Monmouth University one week from today, November 18, 2009. Complete details are below.

CITIZEN JOURNALISM – COUNTERING THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Citizens’ Campaign and Monmouth University are co-hosting a conference on November 18 to discuss the current state of local reporting in our new media environment, including how hyperlocal websites provide a means for stepped up local coverage and opportunities for citizen journalists to report from the frontlines.

The “Citizen Journalism: Countering the Culture of Corruption” morning panel will discuss the cuts in local news room staff and its impact on the quality of local government coverage, and how new online tools make it possible for journalists and citizen activists to report what is happening in city hall and throughout the community.

Speaking on the first panel will be Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania; Richard Benfield, former editorial writer of the Bergen Record and New York Times; Ted Mann, Founder of InJersey.com and Digital Development Director for Gannett New Jersey; and Michael Shapiro, CEO and Editor of www.TheAlternativePress.com.

The day will also feature a “Citizen Journalism” certification course for beginning bloggers & citizen activists who want to submit their own local news stories to online publications; and an afternoon “Meet & Greet” panel for journalism students and activists to talk and network with online news site editors.

The Conference will be held at Wilson Hall at Monmouth University from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so please reserve your seat today by emailing heather@jointhecampaign.com.

The Citizens’ Campaign is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to promoting and encouraging civic engagement. To learn more about the Citizens’ Campaign, log onto www.JoinTheCampaign.com.

November 18, 2009
11 am – 2pm

Monmouth University
Wilson Hall 400 Cedar Ave.
West Long Branch, NJ

11 am – 11:30: Registration & Refreshments

11:30 am: Opening Remarks by Harry Pozycki & Round Table Discussion:
The New Media Climate: How the internet is transforming modern day journalism and its impact on local government & politics

12:30 pm: Becoming a Citizen Journalist

1:00 – 2:00 pm: Meet the New Media Innovators.

Registration
This event is free and open to the public. To register, email Heather@JoinTheCampaign.com

This should be a great event and I hope that my fellow bloggers in the New Jersey area will plan to attend the conference. I’m hoping to get over there myself, schedule permitting. If you DO attend the conference, please consider sending a report on what was talked about and some of your thoughts.

Unless you don’t watch television news, I’m sure you’ve been keeping somewhat of an eye on the battle started by the White House against FOX News. The folks in the White House have suggested that FOX News isn’t a real news outlet and they’ve even begun to cut them out of interview opportunities. The New York Times ran an article on this struggle this morning which does a great job of covering what, exactly, the White House’s beef is and the FOX News response.

There is a lot to write about this particular issue. I could write about how one of my liberal professors is touting the White House’s opposition to FOX News strictly on ideological grounds. One could also write about how Chris Wallace from FOX News Sunday hit the nail directly on the head when he suggested that this White House is filled with a bunch of crybabies. Or one could write about how other news stations are sticking up for FOX. In fact, directly from that New York Times article comes this:

In a sign of discomfort with the White House stance, Fox’s television news competitors refused to go along with a Treasury Department effort on Tuesday to exclude Fox from a round of interviews with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg that was to be conducted with a “pool” camera crew shared by all the networks. That followed a pointed question at a White House briefing this week by Jake Tapper, an ABC News correspondent, about the administration’s treatment of “one of our sister organizations.”

Pretty respectable for the competition to honor the unfair treatment that FOX News has been receiving, huh?

However, I want to focus on two things regarding this issue – the White House’s intentional blur between what is news and what is opinion on FOX News and the game that the White House is playing with FOX News.

First, anyone who studies media or watches a great deal of CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News while reading a diversity of newspapers can tell you that there are only so many ways a company can report a story. When a tornado hits Kansas, you don’t often hear FOX News reporters saying, “A tornado hit Kansas today and the lousy liberals are to blame.” Just like you don’t hear any legitimate reporter on MSNBC blaming conservatives for acts of God. When it comes down to reporting events from around the world, you’re going to read or watch the same report no matter where you go.

However, when it comes to commentary, you’re going to get a divergent approach to “reporting.” Bill O’Reilly calls himself a “humble correspondent.” That’s part of his approach to opinion journalism and there is nothing wrong with that at all! O’Reilly takes a very traditional view on the issues, but that’s okay because he’s hosting a program that is rooted in commentary. Glenn Beck has a staunchly libertarian point of view. Now, those who are not well-versed in political ideology would suggest that Beck is a conservative, but he’s not. So the next time you hear a mass media report or read in a newspaper that Beck is a conservative, then you need to second guess that source of news. Sean Hannity, on the other hand, is a hardcore conservative and there’s nothing wrong with that, either.

FOX News clearly labels these programs as commentary and anyone who knows anything about social interaction beyond “Hello, my name is…” can tell that these programs are NOT news-based! The White House isn’t filled with dummies, they understand that these programs are opinion programs. However, their strategy is to lump the legitimate news departments in with these opinion programs to paint FOX News with a broad, anti-liberal, anti-Obama brush. They know that by doing this, there will be a certain percentage of the population that completely agrees with them and will eventually take over this fight now that it has been brought up at a higher level. It’s a shame that such easily influenced, non-critical thinking people exist to do the White House’s prolonged dirty work.

My second point is that the White House actually managed to do something that they hadn’t been able to do up until they began attacking FOX News, i.e. get the FOX News commentators to STOP digging into the backgrounds of Obama’s staff. Think about it. Glenn Beck single-handedly led to Van Jones’ downfall, which opened up the door for other media organizations to wonder what they had missed out on (read the New York Times article linked above). This, frankly, scared the hell out of the White House and led to them attacking FOX News. If the media is covering itself, then they’re NOT digging into the people who maybe shouldn’t be sitting around the table with the President, right?

Hopefully, people will begin to notice this on a large scale and begin to demand that their White House stop engaging in partisan attacks on the media and, instead, get back to the job of running this country.

Kanye West is a disgusting scumbag. Someone needs to take this out of control lunatic and tell him that no one gives a shit about him or his arrogance, stupidity, or racism (remember his ridiculous remark about President Bush a few years ago? See below). The fact that an incredibly ignorant piece of garbage like West can even become a celebrity in America is a sad and pathetic commentary on what our culture pushes to the mainstream.

When this jerk blurted out a few years ago that President George W. Bush didn’t care about black people, all networks should have immediately banned him from their cameras until he issued a heartfelt apology. That ban never happened. Further, you would think that the mass media and the masses of America would take a statement like that and immediately realize that the person who said it was a complete moron and someone to be shunned. That never happened either.

Then a few years ago West ranted and raved about how MTV was holding down black artists and that he shouldn’t have any competition at the awards show because he was above the rest. I thought that at that point in his ignorant history, people would have begun putting the pieces together and realized that this man is nothing more than an uneducated scumbag who thrives off of making race a divisive issue. Frankly, these two incidents prove that the man is an ignorant racist. And while this incident highlighted his love of using race in a negative way, last night he managed to put the exclamation point on his stupidity.

Here was Taylor Swift – a young woman who was excited to win her VMA and who had never done anything negative to West or anyone else in his world. She wins her award and that scumbag jumps on stage and rants about how Beyonce should have won the award? Are you serious? Who gives a shit about what this asshole thinks anyway? You know that South Park episode where they make fun of West because he doesn’t get the “gay fish” joke? The point of that episode was that West goes around acting like everything that anybody says deals directly with him and that he has a right to insert himself into any dialogue. Well, the world has news for West – sit down and shut the fuck up because no one cares about you!

On the other hand, Beyonce is a saint. If anyone’s night was ruined more than Swift’s, it was Beyonce’s. She wins the biggest award of the night and she graciously gives her time to Swift so she can finish her acceptance speech. What a great thing to do?

MTV (and all networks) should ban West. If Howard Stern can be banned from MTV for showing his bare buttocks, then what else does a moron like West have to do to be banned from that network? The man is a joke.

Talk about all of the upset victories in the history of entertainment/reality television! Worldwide phenomenon and internet superstar Susan Boyle lost the Britain’s Got Talent reality entertainment program over the weekend. What a shame?! And what’s worse – she lost to a dance troupe who, if they’re not forgotten already, will be forgotten by next week.

A dance troupe!

I’m not sure how the voting is conducted by Britain’s Got Talent, but I think I read somewhere that there are ten finalists and they are all voted on by the public. I have to imagine that if the show pitted Susan Boyle against any of the other nine finalists in a head-to-head showdown, she would win the vote hands down. Having potential votes siphoned off by eight other acts is tough on any contestant in any competition.

After Susan Boyle lost the competition, she reportedly hollered that she hated Britain’s Got Talent as she went back to her dressing room. Worse yet, she checked herself into a hospital as she was suffering from extreme exhaustion. Frankly, I blame the tabloid media in Britain as they tried to paint her as a monster after she blew up earlier in the week letting off a few four-letter words. The poor woman – who gives a shit if she told someone to fuck off? 😉 The woman was tired and overexposed by the very media that then had the gall to call her overexposed!

Regardless of her loss on Britain’s Got Talent, expect big things coming for Susan Boyle. She has a raw talent that, once refined, will make her a good living in the European theater scene for the rest of her life. And besides, while she may not have won Britain’s Got Talent, she certain won the hearts and minds of the world-at-large and, most importantly in terms of marketability, she won over the internet crowd.